Inventing Eden

Primitivism, Millennialism, and the Making of New England

Zachary McLeod Hutchins

Examines a diverse group of writers from Bacon to Locke, and from Bradstreet, Cotton, and Edwards to Jefferson, the Connecticut Wits, and the anonymous Freemason poets

Reviews hundreds of primary sources from both sides of the Atlantic and across two centuries

Makes claims for the essentially religious character of the Declaration of Independence, suggesting that a belief in Eden underlies the intellectual justifications for the American Revolution

Inventing Eden

Primitivism, Millennialism, and the Making of New England

Zachary McLeod Hutchins

Description

Previous scholars have noted the Puritans' edenic descriptions of New World landscapes, but Inventing Eden is the first study to fully uncover the integral relationship between the New England interest in paradise and the numerous iconic intellectual artifacts and social movements of colonial North America. Harvard Yard, the Bay Psalm Book, and the Quaker use of antiquated pronouns like thee and thou: these are products of a seventeenth-century desire for Eden. So, too, are the evangelical emphasis of the Great Awakening, the doctrine of natural law popularized by the Declaration of Independence, and the first United States judicial decision abolishing slavery. Be it public nudity or Freemasonry, Zachary Hutchins convincingly shows how a shared wish to bring paradise
into the pragmatic details of colonial living had a profound effect on early New England life and its substantial culture of letters.

Spanning two centuries and surveying the works of major British and American thinkers from James Harrington and John Milton to Anne Hutchinson and Benjamin Franklin, Inventing Eden is the history of an idea that irrevocably altered the theology, literature, and culture of colonial New England -- and, eventually, the new republic.

Inventing Eden

Primitivism, Millennialism, and the Making of New England

Zachary McLeod Hutchins

Author Information

Zach Hutchins is Assistant Professor of English at Colorado State University.

Inventing Eden

Primitivism, Millennialism, and the Making of New England

Zachary McLeod Hutchins

Reviews and Awards

"In this ambitious, deeply researched, and wide-ranging book, Hutchins offers fresh perspective on early New England through an examination of one surprisingly fertile concept: the biblical Eden."--Thomas S. Kidd, author of God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution

"Hutchins, with reading as wide as it is perceptive, demonstrates convincingly that biblical Eden occupied a surprisingly pervasive place in the literature of New England and much of the rest of the American colonies. Whether as literal truth, myth, or metaphorical ideal, paradise loomed large in colonial minds. Among this fine book's many virtues is its genuinely transatlantic character, as Hutchins draws together William Bradford, Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor, and Jonathan Edwards with the likes of Francis Bacon, George Herbert, and John Milton for an unusually illuminating treatment of his edenic theme."--Mark Noll, author of America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln

"In this innovative study, Hutchins persuasively demonstrates that belief in the Garden of Eden -- as both historical model and millennial hope -- shaped how colonial New Englanders approached their environment, bodies, language, and more. Significantly, Inventing Eden also suggests how enduring beliefs in the Edenic ideal shaped later American history."--Matthew J. Grow, co-author of Parley P. Pratt: The Apostle Paul of Mormonism

"Inventing Eden is a beautifully written book. Hutchins intertwines fresh paradigmatic insights with the wide sweep of this carefully researched study."--Reiner Smolinski, editor of The Threefold Paradise of Cotton Mather: An Edition of "Triparadisus"

"Inventing Eden is a thoughtful and compelling book about New England culture, life, and letters...[He] writes the best kind of intellectual history-history that balances ideas, ideology, individuals, and events-and his work should generate healthy discussion about the formation of New England culture for years to come."--The New England Quarterly